Olushola Omogbehin
President Bola Tinubu has sent government delegation to the United Kingdom to discuss the likely transfer of the case of the former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who has been serving a prison sentence in the United Kingdom since March 2023.
The high-powered delegation who arrived in London on Monday will engage British authorities on the possibility of Ekweremadu completing his prison term in Nigeria.
The spokesperson to the foreign affairs minister, Alkasim Abdulkadir, who confirmed this on Tuesday, said the visit was a directive from the presidency for the team to look for legal and diplomatic channels for Ekweremadu’s repatriation under international prisoner-transfer frameworks.
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He further confirmed that a formal request for a prisoner transfer to allow Ekweremadu to serve the remainder of his sentence in Nigeria has been submitted.
“An appeal for a prisoner exchange for him to serve the remainder of his term in Nigeria was tabled before the United Kingdom authorities.”
The delegation, which included the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, on Monday held discussions with officials at the UK Ministry of Justice regarding Ekweremadu’s incarceration.
After the meeting, Nigeria officials were received by Ambassador Mohammed Maidugu, Acting High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, at the Nigerian High Commission in London.
Ekweremadu, a Nigerian lawmaker and three-time Deputy President of the Senate, was arrested with his wife in the UK in June 2022 for his role in organ trafficking after attempting to bring a 21-year-old Lagos boy to Britain for a kidney transplant intended for Sonia, his daughter.
The boy who was allegedly promised to be given a work in the UK, reported the matter to the police in May 2022, saying that he was brought to the country for an organ transplant.
A year later, Ekweremadu was found guilty of organ trafficking by a UK court and was in May, 2023 sentenced to nine years and eight months under the UK Modern Slavery Act.
His wife, who was given a four-year and six-month sentence and was released early this year after which she returned to Nigeria. Dr. Obinna Obeta, the medical go-between was given a ten-year prison term.
